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A review by stacyswirl
Avengers: Endless Wartime by Mike McKone, Warren Ellis, Clark Gregg
2.0
A random ex-library sale book I picked up last year. Warren Ellis is always good for interesting ideas, if not perfect execution. But this was honestly one of the worst books I've read by him. It was just so pedestrian, so boring. It obviously came out around the time of the first Avengers film, and seems to exist primarily as a corporate mandated "make a comic that people who've seen the movies will like". It has incredibly clunky captions explaining the backstory of characters, and pretty much everyone has the most surface-y levels to their characterization and dialogue. Iron Man is witty and arrogant, Cap is a leader unsure of his place in the world, Thor is a noble warrior, and Hawkeye is disrespected by everyone. (Hawkeye's probably one of the best written, but I don't know what that says). Black Widow gets a handful of badass moments but they're all so "stock strong female character". And her primary role most of the book seems to be explaining why SHIELD isn't helping, constantly saying "I called SHIELD to update/ask them and they didn't say anything". She does that like 4 times in the book, it's so stupid and annoying. Reminds me of Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest, whose only job is to talk to the computer.
The ending had a little bit more Ellis-y weird ideas, but never explored enough, and some of the best characterization, mostly from the Hulk, Cap, and Hawkeye of all places, who gives a final speech to Cap about how they all live in "an endless wartime, nothing will ever be done" which I think was mostly a meta commentary on how comics never end, these characters don't get endings, even when they die. That last scene was probably my favorite.
Captain Marvel and Wolverine filled out the non-movie character roster. Carol was not that interesting, except for some fun army vs. air force banter between her and Cap. Wolverine was written really well though, he was a consistent high light. I think because he didn't have a movie version to live up to, he could just be himself if that makes sense.
The art was exceptionally middle-of-the-road. Nothing very interesting, clear panels for the most part, good faces, if a bit vague at times. Bland coloring. Coulda been a lot worse, but that seems to be the entire edict for this book, be a decent adventure for movie avengers fans to start with. I'd like to think that it worked for someone, that some fans read this book and then went on to read other, better avengers books. If they followed their way to Iron Man: Extremis, also by Warren Ellis (and a big influence on Iron Man 3's plot) then that's great.
The ending had a little bit more Ellis-y weird ideas, but never explored enough, and some of the best characterization, mostly from the Hulk, Cap, and Hawkeye of all places, who gives a final speech to Cap about how they all live in "an endless wartime, nothing will ever be done" which I think was mostly a meta commentary on how comics never end, these characters don't get endings, even when they die. That last scene was probably my favorite.
Captain Marvel and Wolverine filled out the non-movie character roster. Carol was not that interesting, except for some fun army vs. air force banter between her and Cap. Wolverine was written really well though, he was a consistent high light. I think because he didn't have a movie version to live up to, he could just be himself if that makes sense.
The art was exceptionally middle-of-the-road. Nothing very interesting, clear panels for the most part, good faces, if a bit vague at times. Bland coloring. Coulda been a lot worse, but that seems to be the entire edict for this book, be a decent adventure for movie avengers fans to start with. I'd like to think that it worked for someone, that some fans read this book and then went on to read other, better avengers books. If they followed their way to Iron Man: Extremis, also by Warren Ellis (and a big influence on Iron Man 3's plot) then that's great.